Tuesday 19 January 2010

Monday, January 18th, 2010

En Route

Dallas/Toronto

Two young fellows on the trail stretching their weekend, I guess, asked if I had a cigarette.

“No! No smoking for me, so no cigarettes.” I kept it brief. Learning from past experiences, early morning stragglers aren’t always the safest people to talk to. Even dogs on the trail here cannot always be trusted. I was lucky with Ugly Face, but today’s pair of canine creatures that I was confronted with did determine my direction which was to turn around.

At the airport, America’s favourite news vehicle, CNN, pumped out info on the world’s goings on from their monitors. What propaganda! Important though was being kept up on news about the Haitian earthquake which has taken a huge death toll.

At one instance of the news casting, I heard the Mamas and the Papas singing “Monday Monday”. But it was a more glum Monday than usual hearing the deplorable details of the earthquake. On the flight from Dallas to Chicago, an elderly couple was curious about me and my companions, Keshava, Praharana, and Nitai Priya.

“We’re Hare Krishnas!”

The woman asked, “Well, do you email and use technology? You have to know what’s going on in the world, don’t you?” inferring that it’s not a good idea to be totally cut off from the world. We concurred.

It was never intended by our guru, Srila Prabhupada, that our society be a cloistered lifestyle. Our intent is to give association to people, to offer spiritual life and in the process, some interaction naturally takes place.

4 Km

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